The Sound of Madness
by T- Virus Rose
Summary: A soldier who's been left for dead after the deaths of her team and a young man on the opposite side of a war he can't hope to understand. After a violent first encounter, what will become of them? Reviews make T a happy Hunter. Eventual Hunter X OC.
1. The Savage Dance

-x-

_One. Justonenow. Mineit'smineit'sminemineMINE._

From his high place above he stared down at his prey, watching and waiting in complete silence though every second was an agony of wanting. The smell of clean blood drifted up to him, warm and delicious even over the reek of something diseased and burning, and drove him mad, but it wasn't time yet. No, he had to wait.

_Soon. Killsoon. Pounceandripandbiteandeat. Soonnow. Verysoon._

He rocked forwards slightly on his heels and hissed under his breath, keeping a hungry eye on the prey below. There had been more prey before, a small group of Clean Ones with firesticks that they'd used to kill many of his brothers, but they'd been mangled and crushed by the Big One that was now laying just as dead as they were, it's body the source of that awful smell and casting off a large part of that horribly bright heat source his prey had let out with their throwing things. Now it was just the one that remained, illuminated by the burning light that stung his eyes: the Clean One that had killed the Big One, clutching their firestick and their eyes locked on the destroyed wreckage of the moving shell that they and the others like them had been sheltered in before.

Somewhere in his diseased mind he recognized that any prey that could bring down a Big One like that might have been a threat, but instinct screamed at him otherwise. They looked like such _easy prey_. They were small, much smaller than he was, and they were just standing there. Best of all, they were alone. He couldn't hold back an excited growl at that thought.

_Alonepreyeasykill. Easyfood. Yesyesyes._

They were alone, and lone prey never did stand a chance against a starving Hunter.

-x-

Skyler (Theodora Skyler, though she preferred not to go by her first name for obvious reasons) wasn't exactly sure when the persona that her sister had made up for her had become real; only that, somewhere along the line, she had become a hardened woman. All she knew was that she was looking at the flaming wreckage of a half-crushed army Humvee, the bodies of the five men and women who she'd come to know as her squadron scattered about like bloody, limp rags, and the cooked body of the Tank that had killed them that she had then killed herself with the assistance of her assault rifle and a couple of well-timed Molotovs. And that she was, once again, the sole survivor once the shit had hit the fan.

_And Jesus Christ, has the shit hit the fan this time._

The damned Tank had come out of nowhere. Her team had been sent out on what had been their first rescue mission in weeks, having finally, _finally_ received a radio message from the evac center in the old high school, and for the first time in ages Skyler's mood was actually looking up. She'd been _hopeful_. Those infected bastards couldn't let her have that, could they? And, of course, it had to be a fucking _Tank_.

_Always at exactly the wrong goddamned time. Isn't that right, Lauren?_

She gritted her teeth at the thought of her sister, but shoved it into the back of her mind. Now wasn't exactly the best time to dwell on things like that.

An enraged shriek first from off to her left and then from seemingly everywhere let her know that her recent battle hadn't gone unnoticed by the horde of common infected in the area. _Shit!_ Case in point. Despite her petite build Skyler had always more than held her own in a horde fight, but she wasn't too eager to press her luck while she was going solo. It was time to get out of there.

She quickly reloaded her assault rifle and took inventory of her surroundings. Other than the flames from the destroyed vehicle and her Mollys it was fairly clear, and she had a moment before the infected would descend on her seeking to make her their next meal. Okay. Good.

Still unnervingly calm Skyler spared her fallen teammates one last glance with a silent acknowledgment that they would be missed, and then took off at a steady jog in search of some place where she could temporarily take refuge. A safe room stocked with some ammo would be nice, but anywhere with a sturdy door would do provided there weren't any other Tanks in the area and she didn't manage to piss off a Witch. Conscious of the weight of her remaining Molotov and pipe bombs, she scowled to herself and capped a common infected in her path in the head with a short burst of gunfire.

"Just try to take me, you sons of bitches."

-x-

The Hunter bared his teeth in anger, so much anger.

_Nonono. Preyleaving, don'tletpreygo. Follow._

His head pounding with rage and the anticipation of a hunt rushing through him, he ran and leapt fluidly across any obstacle before him. The bunching and relaxing of his muscles and the rush of air was familiar, almost soothing; it was something to focus on, at least, something to stem the horrible headache that took him sometimes, painful enough that he'd occasionally turn his claws on himself in an effort to get it to stop. He'd nearly taken out his eyes more than one time before.

He dropped onto a low perch and crawled on all fours up to the very edge of it, keeping hidden in the shadows and looking down.

There. His prey was below, having stopped for a moment but with their firestick still raised threateningly. He quivered in excitement, waiting for exactly the right moment and appraising this Clean One that he was about to make his kill.

_Womanprey_, he realized with a hint of excitement flashing through his mind. It wasn't as though the difference between manprey and womanprey meant much to him, but womanprey more often than not was likely to thrash and scream. That was good.

_Close! Soclose! Now, wantitnow, killnownowNOW!_

He managed to stop himself from leaping at her then and there, but was unable to hold back a low growl. His prey's head jerked upwards at the sound and her firestick pointed almost right at him. Long before she could spot him he had already ducked out of view. No; the last little shred of rational thought he had was telling him that he'd be dead before he could get his claws in her if he jumped now. More waiting, more following. Oh, he wanted _so much_ to tear this womanprey apart.

But he would wait; wait and stalk. There was no way that he was going to let his prey get away.

-x-

Shit. As if Skyler's luck wasn't shitty enough already. She was _sure_ that she'd heard a Hunter, and odds were that meant that the thing was still tracking her. If she got pounced while she was on her own… Well, she'd seen it happen before. It would shred her and throw her guts around like some kind of gory confetti. She held her assault rifle at the ready and cautiously continued on her way, making sure that she wasn't walking into some kind of ambush. The brain-fried bastards could be surprisingly cunning when they wanted to be.

_Well, if I can just get into a safe room, that won't be a problem, now will it?_

True, true. The instincts she'd gained in her several weeks out in the open before she'd joined up with the army kicked in and she kept a close eye out on every side, paying special attention to scouring for any red arrows that could lead her to her potential salvation. None were visible yet, but there had to be one somewhere. It was just a matter of holding out until she found it.

Though her apparent pursuer might complicate that a bit.

As she jogged down the middle of the road to avoid the parked or wrecked cars on the sides, she became more and more sure that she was being watched from somewhere too close for comfort. Of course though, every time she looked around she saw nothing but commons that she'd occasionally gun down when they noticed her. Sneaky bastard. What the hell was it waiting for?

Skyler scowled to herself and pressed on anyways, though she didn't let her guard down for one second. She wasn't about to let some Hunter that thought it was clever enough to avoid her gun pin her. If it wanted to play that way, then she'd play; she'd taken on far worse than leapers before and walked away unscathed.

There! Her eyes lit up when she caught sight of a telltale arrow pointing her in the direction of a narrow alley. She was going to make it; she could securely lock herself in and radio her base, and they'd send out a party to rescue her so she could be done worrying about Tanks and hordes and stalker Hunters. Before she could think it through any further she was running for the alley, her legs bent to jump. All she had to do was get over this-

As soon as her feet hit the back of the old station wagon that she was trying to climb over, a deafeningly loud series of keening beeps pierced the night air, alerting every infected within earshot of her presence. Oh… Christ. In her haste, Skyler had forgotten one of the most cardinal rules of surviving in the city: Always make sure that the car wasn't alarmed.

The chorus of furious screams that followed almost drowned out the wail of the car alarm, but over even that she could clearly hear, from right overhead, the piercing shriek of a Hunter about to pounce.

_Shit!_ Skyler thought.

She'd made it that far already, though. And she sure as hell wasn't about ready to die now.

-x-

For a moment after the _badnoise_ shattered the silence the Hunter cringed and brought his hands over his ears, no longer able to hold back the scream that had been building in his throat.

_Noise! Stopbadnoise! Badnoisepain!_

From all around his brothers screamed their anger at their silence being disturbed, their cries adding a whole other level to the agony assaulting his mind. The pounding of his head boiled over into more fury, so much that he thought it would explode out of him. Somehow though, even through that, he managed to realize what was happening.

_Badnoisecallbrothers. Womanpreyfight, notsee, kill, KILL…_

Sure enough, soon the womanprey was fending off a great number of his lesser brothers, her firestick flashing and banging, and she was looking every way but where he laid in wait.

A savage snarl ripped from his throat. No more waiting. It was time. He threw his head back into a shriek, the pain and anger and his want to kill this womanprey making a sound that almost frightened _him_. The scream continued when he finally allowed himself to pounce, his legs pushing him off of the roof and then down towards his stunned prey below.

-x-

In the brief instant before that screaming, dark grey blur hit her, all Skyler could do was stare upwards, the remainders of the horde assailing her suddenly forgotten. Surprisingly calmly, one thought ran through her head:

_I'm going to die._

And then the Hunter was on her. It's weight slammed into her rather small frame like a ton of bricks, sending her crashing to the ground with it; knocking the breath out of her and, from the explosion of pain in her ribcage, probably cracking or at least bruising a few ribs in the process. For a second she was stunned, big black spots swimming in her vision.

Then the Hunter brought up its arms to tear into her, and both her mind and her body went into overdrive.

-x-

The savage joy that he was feeling couldn't be described. It filled his mind, taking away everything but his prey below him; her frantic heartbeat racing nearly in time with his, the way she thrashed and bucked under him, the delicious scent of her fear mingled with… something else.

_KILLKILLKILLKILL!_

He raked his claws across her chest, tearing through fabric and then sending arcs of blood flying through the air, the sight and smell of blood exciting him all the more. The womanprey's screaming rose almost as loud as his own, desperate and angry rather than the complete fear he was used to in the strange sounds of the Clean Ones.

_Riptearkill. YesyesYES-_

Something… something else was bothering him, though, taking from the glee that should come with his kill. He growled in frustration as his destroyed mind tried to understand what it was.

Her eyes, he realized. He didn't want his prey staring up at him with those strangely colored eyes. He didn't truly understand it, but he didn't question it.

_Stoppreylooking. Tear._

His head was hurting again, terribly. Whatever she'd done to cause it, though he didn't know what it was, this prey was going to pay for it.

-x-

Skyler's whole body was burning with the blood pounding through her at a million miles an hour; a good deal of it, worryingly, soaking into her now-shredded top. The only reason she hadn't been disemboweled yet was because of the Kevlar vest over her shirt and tank top, but if the Hunter kept getting in swipes like it was the already damaged vest would provide no protection at all. Her thrashing seemed to be doing next to nothing, except for maybe exciting the creature.

_Oh god._

Her entire body stiffened with heat and tension. Notably, in a highly inappropriate location that would probably have some people vomiting if they were to find out. Skyler was suddenly very aware of the Hunter's legs straddling her and her breath hitched.

_Oh god. Oh god, not now._

Abruptly furious at the thing for doing this to her, she fought all the more desperately.

"Get the hell OFF OF ME!" she screamed, for all the good that it did.

Suddenly the Hunter broke off its clawing attack, growling in her face. It was close enough that she could smell and feel its breath, fevered and reeking of blood and disease, down her neck. She could see blood-tainted saliva dripping from the sharpened teeth it had bared in a snarl. Under the hood of its sweatshirt she caught a brief glimpse of feral, gleaming yellow eyes burning down into her own violet. Oh Christ. What was it doing?

A second later, she got her answer as pain, unbearable and quite literally blinding, raked down the side of her face. Skyler shrieked in agony like none she'd ever known as blood poured down her face in torrents. Her vision, and not just in her right eye, blacked out. She was thrashing, she was kicking…

And then, with a sharp yelp of surprise, she'd managed to kick the Hunter right off of her. Obviously it hadn't counted on a woman her size having the kind of strength that she did, especially when fueled by pain and adrenaline. Skyler rolled away and, still panting in agony, reached for the holster of her pistol.

-x-

Whatever thoughts had been in the Hunter's head spun together into a deafening, incomprehensible scream as he was knocked backwards off of his prey. He screeched his rage, already rolling to attack again. The anger was unbearable now; even the hunger twisting his gut was secondary.

He was barely aware that the womanprey had her firestick aimed at him again, and even then he was beyond caring. Before it got the chance to send out one of its stings he lunged for her again, snapping his sharpened teeth. She brought up her arms to protect herself just as he slammed into her, but it wasn't enough to stop him from knocking her back to the ground. The womanprey yelled angrily and shoved with a surprising amount of strength. But no. He wasn't going to let his prey go like that. The Hunter snarled and snapped at her, connecting with two of her fingers.

And then, as the taste of her blood flooded his senses, the hunger took over. The rage still burned hot inside of him, but it hardly mattered now. It became a matter of simple need. He wanted to screech in excitement but that would mean releasing his hold on his prey, so he bit down harder even as he heard the womanprey's pained gasps and the crunch of bone. The eye that he hadn't taken out yet was wild and glazed with the familiar look of agony and the fear smell rolled off her in waves. That _something_ was still making his head throb; he'd have to take care of that next-

Then something cold and hard was pressed into his gut. Usually his instincts would be screaming at him to get away, but he couldn't have released her even if he'd wanted to. He growled threateningly through her mangled fingers, and the womanprey gave the most menacing sound he'd ever heard from a Clean One under him.

BANG!

Pain exploded in his gut before he could even process what had happened, scaring a good deal of the aggression right out of him for a moment, and he yelped in fright, releasing what was left of her fingers in the process.

_PAIN! HurtdangerrunrunRUN!_

Nearly blind with terror, he drew his legs up under him and leaped off his prey as far as he could and then kept going, claws frantically scrabbling across the ground. His gut was on fire and he could feel and smell his own diseased blood soaking his coverings, but he couldn't stop now. Not safe; not yet.

Soon though, it just hurt too much to go on any farther. Letting out a series of pitiful whines, the Hunter managed to drag himself under the shelter of one of the big metal things before collapsing into a shuddering, bleeping heap.

This, this was awful. He was still horribly angry, and even hungrier. Only now, he hurt too much to do anything about it. Nothing but lay there whimpering to himself. Slowly his rage began to fade into something even worse; more fear. The Hunter curled into himself with another low whine.

This was bad. This was very, very bad.

* * *

><p>-Author's Note-<p>

Oh dear lord, my first story on this site. I'm so excited! Anyways, this is a highly experimental style for me (especially the Hunter POV), so any feedback is much loved. It's probably riddled with things I need to improve on, so constructive criticism is appreciated. Also, know of a song that's perfect for this chapter or any chapter after it? Please, let me know! This will probably be one of few author's notes. Updates will most likely be slow due to school and life.


	2. Wounded Warsong

-x-

_ Skyler wiped away the condensation from the mirror of her apartment's bathroom after securely wrapping a towel around herself, then pulled down another one and stood in front of the sink to begin towel drying her hair. Her reflection peered back at her, her long brown hair hanging wet and limp down her back and shoulders and her violet eyes free from any bags or shadows. Her young face was clean and shining with the distinct glow of youth, a sparse scattering of freckles standing out against her admittedly slightly pale skin across her cheeks and nose. She smiled slightly, flashing a set of even white teeth, and then set to brushing her hair._

_The stress of actually getting the apartment was finally behind her, and god was it showing. She wanted to celebrate from how good it felt. This, she thought, was the start. She was twenty-two years old and was making a life for herself, complete with a place to call her own._

_A soft knock came from the other side of the door, her sister's familiar voice pulling her from her thoughts._

"_Theo?"_

-x-

Trembling, blood-slick fingers reached up to gingerly brush the brutalized right side of Skyler's face as she examined the wound in the cracked mirror of her would-be safe house's bathroom. She pushed a few dirty strands of her now-short hair that were sticking to it away to get a better look. What she saw was not pretty. Not only were there five long, very painful gashes running from her brow almost down to her chin, but what remained of the eye was little more than gore. Her face, which had already gone pale from blood loss, turned white. She flicked her gaze down to her left hand to confirm what she'd seen again, ready to throw up. It was as she'd thought; her index and middle fingers were simply gone above the knuckle. Not entirely lucid from a combination of blood loss and shock, Skyler barked a harsh little laugh.

"Well, don't I look great," she muttered to herself.

The rest of her little trip hadn't been fun, to say the least. She'd been fully intending on finding and locking herself into whatever safe room the graffiti had indicated, but she'd shortly become dangerously faint and had already vomited once. Wouldn't that just beat all, to survive being pounced and then pass out to make an easy meal for if that Hunter decided to come back? So she'd had to settle for taking up temporary residence in the long-vacated little flat in the back of a looted corner store, and she'd pray that nothing would follow the trail of blood she'd undoubtedly left all over the place and find her.

She still had her med kit and was going to have to patch herself up soon, or she'd stand a fair chance of eventually bleeding to death. Still, Skyler couldn't help but linger in front of the mirror for a little bit longer. She looked like hell, and not just because of the fact that she was now short an eye. Her face had aged ten years, and the eye she had left to her was slightly puffy from not having gotten a decent sleep in weeks and cold from having witnessed things that, before all of this had started, probably would've given her a mental breakdown. My, how much could change in the course of a few months.

What would Lauren think, she wondered? Then she internally scoffed; she knew the answer to that one. She probably wouldn't believe that she was even the same woman. Skyler, joining up with the army and gunning down dozens if not hundreds of the infected? Quiet little Skyler, surviving Tank attacks that killed five other highly trained soldiers? Her sweet little Theo, tensing up like some horny teenager under a goddamned _zombie_ until she got the living hell mauled out of her? She wasn't even sure that she was the same woman herself.

No more of that.

Skyler sighed tiredly and sat down on the bathroom floor, eyeing first the shallower slashes across her chest and then the missing tips of her two fingers. She then took her first aid kit off her back and unzipped it, laying out some antiseptic, a needle, and some string before her.

"This is going to be fun."

-x-

The Hunter's limbs collapsed under him again, sending him down to the ground where the blood from his wound was still dripping.

_Upgetupgetup!_ he willed himself, hissing softly with the effort.

It didn't take him long to rise, but it still wasn't good. The strength was leaving him, and his brothers knew that. Some of his weaker brothers turned to stare and he had to snarl in warning at them to send them away. They would kill him if he showed weakness.

The sting from the womanprey's firestick still burned in his stomach, causing him to have to fight back a whimper from the pain every time that he moved. He'd been wounded by a firestick once before, but not like this. This sting had gone somewhere deeper, where licking his wound and hunting on the ground for a little while wouldn't fix it. His covering was stuck against his body with blood. Everything hurt, and it was because of the womanprey.

His head started throbbing again thinking about her and he growled, the anger swelling up inside of him again and his claws twitching on the ground.

_Womanpreydid. Herfault. Painherfault._

Soon after he'd crawled out from under the shelter of the big metal thing, the Hunter had realized something: the womanprey had killed him. He wasn't dead yet, but his life was slowly leaving him with his blood. He was going to die.

But not until he'd finished his hunt.

His prey had been badly hurt when he'd pounced on her, and so she'd left a trail of blood behind her when she'd moved. Good. That was good. It meant that she'd be easy to track, and that she was already weak. He could kill her, and then he could go back to his nest and, and rest. Yes. He needed to kill her before he could rest.

That thought spurred him on; let him keep going through the pain still ripping through his gut and the tired haze that was now starting to settle into his body.

Once he'd killed the womanprey, he could finally rest. The Hunter continued stalking forwards with grim purpose.

-x-

Involuntary tears of pain were still rolling down Skyler's face, already slick from sweat, when she finally pulled the red-hot barrel of her pistol away from what remained of her fingers. The reek of cooked skin permeated the air, making her gag, but she managed to fight back the vomit. She spat out her dog tags that she'd had clenched between her teeth, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Shit. She'd saved the best for last, hadn't she? That had been worse than when the Hunter had taken off her fingers in the first place. At least the gas stove had even been working for her to heat up her gun in the first place, and at least now she wasn't in any immediate risk of bleeding out.

Skyler felt ready to pass out. She'd just been put through pain like she'd never known in her life, and she was emotionally exhausted. She was feeling the crash of her adrenaline rush with a vengeance and honestly just wanted to collapse. That would have to wait, though.

With an exhausted sigh she went back into the bathroom to retrieve a wad of gauze and had to force herself to look at her fingers to bandage them; they were now both mangled _and_ an attractive shade of cauterized skin. Combined with the already blood-soaked bandages covering her right eye, she was sure that she looked fantastic. She shook her head to herself at that. What did it matter now? It wasn't like she had anyone to impress.

Once she'd finished she fished her water bottle out of her bag and drank a good portion of it in one go. Normally she'd be trying to conserve it, but she was dehydrated from blood loss. 'Keep your fluids up', their field medic Carlin would've been saying; too bad the damned Tank had killed her. She did indeed feel marginally better with some water in her.

There was one last thing she had to do before she could get a good few hours of rest, though. Skyler took notice of a decent sized armchair in the small living room and, putting all of her muscle into it, she managed to shove it up against the door that she'd come in through. There. That should keep the commons from breaking in, and if worst came to worst she'd hear them coming.

Utterly worn down by that point, Skyler finally picked her assault rifle up off the kitchen counter and made her way towards the single bedroom at the far end of the flat. It was going to be a long night.

-x-

_Closenow. Moreblood. Preysmell. Painpainpain- Keepgoing. Womanpreyclose._

The Hunter hissed and continued creeping forwards on all fours. There were walls and high places all around him, but he'd found that jumping was an agony that he couldn't take, and his previously strong legs were lacking the strength it took anyways. That was bad; he didn't feel entirely secure on the ground, especially in his weakened state.

The pain still burned in his stomach but he'd become oddly disconnected from it; some connection between his mind and his body wasn't working right. All he could really think about was the kill that he knew was to come. One more rush, one more thrill of fierce excitement before he could give in to the tired haze creeping into him.

_Killwomanprey, thenrest. Killwomanprey, then-_

The Hunter froze in place when it suddenly struck him just where he was going, just where the scent was coming from. His entire body quivered in tension.

_Nest? Womanpreyinnest?_

NO. The rage boiled up in him to a point that he couldn't stand, that he had to shriek it to anything that could hear. His vision was hazed red with it.

This prey meant to _destroy_ him. She'd escaped from his attack, wounded him so badly that he couldn't even escape into the motion of running and jumping, and now she was _in his nest_. She wanted to make him so angry that it would wipe him out, that it would take away all thought forever.

He wasn't going to let that happen. Growls constantly escaped him as he ran at almost a sprint despite the never ending stabbing in his gut, driven by a blinding hate of the womanprey. He would appease his fury with her flesh and blood. The Hunter raised his head and screamed his kill-screech at the sky.

He hoped that the womanprey heard him.

-x-

When Skyler removed her gear belt from her waist it felt like she'd abruptly been freed from a ten-pound weight. She set it down on an end table next to the bed and then stretched tiredly, trying to rid herself of some of the tension that had built up in her. Before the infection had started she'd been taking yoga courses, however far she'd come from it by this point, and was generally very good at relaxing herself. That wasn't the case this time; she felt like her neck and her back were going to be stiff forever.

At least the bed looked comfortable, even though all of the blankets were strangely gone off of it. Of everything that she could've been thinking about at the moment, somehow she chose that to ponder. Then she noticed a bit of one of them sticking out from under the bed.

"What the hell?" she murmured to herself, kneeling down to investigate.

Sure enough, there they were, arranged into a little pile under the bed. Kind of a weird place to put them… Curiously she pulled one of the blankets out, to find that it was nearly shredded and lightly smeared with blood. Almost like…

Oh Christ. Almost like something had been laying in it after having rolled in blood; almost like some kind of nest.

At the sound of a Hunter's enraged scream from almost right outside, Skyler instinctively snatched up her assault rifle. It couldn't get in, though, could it? She'd blocked the only door with the armchair from the living room. And then it dawned on her.

_Windows, dumb ass! Not just doors, windows!_

Her now one-sided gaze darted around the flat, until something stopped her cold: The curtains in the living room window were fluttering lightly in the breeze.

The window was wide fucking open. And from how close the Hunter had sounded, she stood no chance of blocking it in time.


	3. Broken Benjamin

-x-

_Almosttherenow. Closecloseclose. . NestMINE._

That thought was all that kept the Hunter still going. His body protested his every move, but he needed to keep moving. Before it was too late.

There. There was the entrance to his nestplace, a few drops of the womanprey's blood leading right up to it. He snarled at the proof of the intruder in his nest, but cut off into a yelp when his legs failed him again. There was black in the corners of his vision.

_Nonono, notnownotnow!_

He wanted to whine in fright, but he couldn't; his brothers would kill him if he showed how weak he was now. They would kill him, and he wouldn't be able to take what he needed.

Please, _please_ let him be strong enough to take what he needed. He didn't want to die, but at least he could die with fresh blood on his coverings and food in his stomach; at least he could die as a Hunter.

It was harder to get himself back up again this time, but finally he managed it. In; in through the open crawlspace. The pain flared in his gut sharper than ever when he forced himself to climb but soon he was inside and landed on the floor with none of his usual grace.

He growled softly, looking around at the space surrounding his nest. Where was the womanprey? Her scent was everywhere, sharp and delicious with fear, but he didn't see her anywhere. He raised his nose and started sniffing, searching.

Then the sound of movement from off to the side caught the attention of his sensitive ears, and there she was in his nestroom, her firestick pointed right at him.

He'd been right about badly hurting her, he saw. Her eye and chest were covered in wrappings almost like the ones on his arms and legs but he could still smell her blood through them, and from her breathing he knew that she was tired. Good. She would make easy prey, if he could just get on her before one of the firestick's stings hit him again.

_Hatewomanprey, killnow, pounceripeat!_

The Hunter reared back to pounce, his kill-screech building in his throat as the womanprey readied her firestick-

And then his limbs went dead under him, his sight fading out almost completely, his body giving even though he was raging inside.

_NonoNO! UPGETUPGETUP! KILL!_

He tried to rise again, tried to thrash, but his body just wasn't listening to him. No! This wasn't what was supposed to happen! The Hunter shrieked his defiance at the womanprey, at his own body for failing him now, at… He didn't even know what; now he was just shrieking. He was as weak and helpless as prey.

And now he was going to die like one.

-x-

Skyler kept her assault rifle trained unwaveringly on the struggling, screaming, and rather bloody heap of grey-hooded Hunter collapsed onto the floor. Of course, it was the same damned one that had mauled her; just like a leaper to track her down even with a point-blank shot from her pistol in its gut. Not that it was going to be doing much of anything now.

She scowled and risked a few steps forwards, causing the creature to snarl with increasing ferocity and redouble its efforts to rise and get at her.

"Persistent little bastard, aren't you? Came back to finish me off, did you?"

The Hunter's growls increased in volume at the sound of her voice. The sound cut off into a startled whine when Skyler took the safety off of her rifle, but it quickly stopped itself and resumed snarling at her, turning its pale face upwards to glare balefully at her with concealed eyes. Trying to make itself look threatening, probably. From the way its gaze kept flickering to her gun and how it was practically hyperventilating, she didn't buy it.

The sight was pathetic, really. As she watched the Hunter again attempted to get back on all fours, only to fall defeated. An uncharacteristic spark of pity for the wounded infected welled up in her. Curious, she warily approached a little closer to get a better look.

It was different looking at the thing when it wasn't tearing the living shit out of her. It… Skyler sighed internally. He wasn't such a big boy, she realized now that he wasn't on top of her, it wasn't so much his height as her lack thereof that made up the size difference. He was probably around eighteen or nineteen if she had to guess; a kid, practically. His build was lean and muscular, but at the same time a little on the thin side from lack of food. Across the heaving back of his hoodie, barely visible through the extensive bloodstains, was an elaborate Celtic knot with the band logo 'Breaking Benjamin'. Breaking Benjamin, huh? They were a decent enough band. She wondered if he'd been a fan before, but that thought soon made her uncomfortable.

And he was most certainly not happy about her presence. The Hunter was now shifting back and forth on his limbs as though in some kind of delirious attempt to decide whether he should fight or flee until, with a pathetic whine, he simply collapsed. Whimpers now mingled freely with his assorted snarls and hisses as he continued staring up at her. She'd seen that look before, on the face of one of the younger men she'd fought alongside who'd been gored by a Witch; he was waiting for death.

What was making him so desperate, she wondered? Even the infected usually would've given in and died after losing that much blood. Then she thought of that nest of blankets under the bed and it hit her: It probably belonged to the Hunter she was looking at right now; he'd probably crawled back here to die or something. Well, _that_ thought was depressing.

"Is that what it is, Benjamin?" she muttered, hardly aware of using the band name. 'Ben'. Christ, had she seriously just put a name to a freaking _Hunter_ that had tried to rip her to shreds hours before? She must've been out of it from blood loss. Or maybe it was the fact that it was a pretty safe bet that he wasn't long for this world that was making her soft.

'Ben' gave no response other than growling at her, but she was fairly certain that she was right. Skyler remained where she stood for another few, dragging moments, before scowling, slightly disgusted with herself at what she intended to do. She walked across the rest of the room until she stood directly over the injured leaper.

"Well, hell. I can do that."

-x-

_Nonono. Nowomanprey, nowomanpreykill. Run. No, norun. Kill. Can't. Pleasepleaseplease. Nokill._

The Hunter's already warped thoughts swam with weakness, but he still had enough sense left in him to fear the womanprey standing over him with her firestick. This, this was wrong. She had no right to be stronger than him; she was his prey. It was _his nestplace_. Wrong, all wrong.

Why, _why_ hadn't she just killed him yet? Was she going to toy with him first, like he was the prey instead of her? His head throbbed with confusion, which she only made worse with her strange prey noises.

_Headhurts, pain, stop. Nomore._

He wanted to claw the pain away, but he didn't dare take his attention off of the womanprey, certain that death would come as soon as he did.

The anger surged hot inside of him when she crouched near him and he growled in one last try to intimidate her, but it was useless; he'd already accepted that he was going to die without even the pleasure of sinking his teeth and claws into flesh one last time. He didn't understand why she hadn't killed him already, but he knew it was coming. Fading, he was fading…

_Nonono, please-_

Then hands were firmly latched around either of his ankles, pulling hard. The Hunter's mind launched into a blind panic.

_Preytouching, preytouching, nonoNONONO!_

He screeched until his throat was raw from the strain and dug his claws into the floor-covering to resist the womanprey's dragging, tearing up long, ragged strips of it but slipping in his weakness anyways. There wasn't enough strength left in his legs to manage a successful kick.

What was she going to do to him? He didn't know what was worse, this or if she'd just killed him right away. He had no understanding of what was happening, and that was terrifying. The womanprey was backing up towards his nest?

_No! Nowomanpreyinnest! Mine, nestMINE!_

The Hunter shrieked, somehow finding the energy to twist madly in an effort to break away though it made the blood start soaking into his coverings again. All it succeeded in doing was to make her pause for a moment and make angry muttering noises before she started pulling again with strength that a Clean One that small shouldn't have. Eventually the pain made him stop. He squeezed his eyes shut under his covering, not even wanting to see what she was going to do to him.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the dragging stopped. A few seconds passed before he cautiously opened his eyes. When he did, he was met with the sight of the low crawlspace with his nest inside next to him.

_Nest!_

As soon as he saw it the urge to crawl inside and curl up into himself struck him. But wait. Not yet. Something was still wrong.

Freed, the Hunter turned his head to snarl at the womanprey, but was dimly surprised to find that she was already backing away. It confused him badly, but he wasn't going to protest it now; he was too hurt and tired.

Calling on every bit of energy he had left in him, he managed to drag himself forward enough to get inside of his nest and curl up in the soft things he'd made it of. The dark and the close space comforted him and he immediately felt safer, even with the womanprey still in the room. He still kept a wary eye on her, though, watching until she walked to leave his nestroom.

Through the pounding of his head and the fog of weakness, some kind of thought was trying to force itself into his mind.

_Womanprey. Nest. Womanprey._

Whatever it was, he lacked the ability to really pursue it.

Content with the fact that he was safe for now, the Hunter slowly relaxed and let himself drift into a daze that wasn't quite sleep.

-x-

As soon as she shut the bedroom door behind her Skyler leaned back into it, breathing heavily from a combination of fatigue and anxiety, and closed her eyes to catch her breath. She really didn't want to think too hard about what she'd just shut in there, but there was no avoiding it. Christ, had she really just done what she thought she had?

_All right, Skyler, calm down. No changing what's already been done._

She took a deep, calming breath to clear herself. Then cautiously she took her weight off of the door, almost expecting the Hunter to come crashing through the second that she did. Fortunately, nothing happened. She supposed she should've thought as much; he'd been in pretty rough shape from the looks of it. That bullet had probably hit something important.

With that, she took up a brisk stride across the room, stopping only to pick up her dropped assault rifle on the way. There was no way in hell that she was staying locked into the flat with a Hunter, half-dead or not. She was less liable to collapse now that she'd patched herself up, and she could probably find the safe room before morning and actually get some undisturbed sleep provided she didn't get pounced again or something. If she left her flashlight off she stood a good chance of avoiding most of the horde...

Her thoughts trailed off at the sight of bloodstains and long, dragging gouges torn out of the carpet, a tangible reminder of the ordeal she'd had to go through just to get the Hunter across the room. The infected had seemed so distressed that she almost felt sorry for her part in it. She wondered if he was going to make it through the night…

What? No! She wasn't having any of that. She wasn't some bleeding heart crying over every zombie she happened to kill; she was Skyler, Theodora Skyler, the one her men always counted on to be hard when she needed to be. It was what had kept her alive, and there was no need for it to change now.

Thoroughly fed up with herself, Skyler walked over to the armchair blocking the door to shove it out of her way. She tactlessly pushed against it for a moment, moving the heavy piece of furniture maybe a couple of inches. Then she abruptly ceased her effort, groaning her exasperation and planting her boot firmly in the side of the chair.

Screw it, she thought hastily. Screw it; she was tired. She was tired, and she didn't feel like moving the damned loveseat. It could wait until morning. She was just too fucking tired.

Angrily she trudged over to the dusty couch against the wall and climbed onto it fully dressed, with her boots still on, before pulling down the throw blanket (the only one in the flat that wasn't under the bed, probably) and lying down with her head on a sofa pillow and her rifle at her side.

She was out of her goddamned mind.

In the silence that followed, a broken sort of whine reached her from the bedroom. Skyler scowled at the sound and sat up just enough to grab one of the other pillows, chucking it at the door hard enough to hit with a solid _thump_ that made the whimper cut off into a startled yelp.

"Shut the hell up, Ben."

* * *

><p>Forgot to say this on the last one. Left 4 Dead belongs to Valve. Breaking Benjamin belongs to, well... Breaking Benjamin. Skyler and 'Ben' belong to me.<p> 


	4. Heartkiller

-x-

_The single light in the safe room seemed to burn too bright over Skyler as Lauren and her former coworker Flynn laid her out on top of the makeshift bunk, their faces swimming into focus through the throbbing pain wracking her body. Every inch of her felt broken and bruised._

_They'd been fending off a horde when a Smoker had snared her, dragging her off until she'd gotten hung up on an abandoned car, and the commons had turned their attention on her in her helplessness. The fists and teeth had come mercilessly while the Smoker's tongue had continued crushing her ribs and suffocating her until all there had been was pain and she'd passed out from asphyxiation. Then, next thing she knew, she was waking up with Flynn and her sister carrying her into the safe house. She'd never been beaten like that in her life. Oh god, there was so much blood-_

_Skyler gasped for breath, her eyes widening and her hands clenching in panic as she looked up at them._

"_L-Lauren?" she gasped fearfully._

_Her sister just nodded, her expression as firm and collected as ever. A good deal of other people would've been losing it if their younger sister was in shape like that, but not Lauren; her sheer toughness and level-headedness was, Skyler was sure, the glue that was holding their little group together._

"_Yeah, Theo. You're all right now. They messed you up good, but Flynn and me are going to get you fixed up."_

_Despite the fact that Lauren and Flynn were both nursing assistants, the assurance did little to calm Skyler down; terror was gripping her heart like a vice._

"_Oh god… O-oh god… Oh god," she stammered, "I'm going to die, aren't I?"_

_She had to be dying; it hurt that badly, anyways. Lauren shook her head, though, and the gesture seemed genuine_

"_You're not going to die, Theo," she assured her calmly as Flynn hurriedly made his way over to a far table with a few first aid kits on it. Then she actually smiled a little, taking one of Skyler's hands in hers and brushing her hair away from her forehead. "You're invincible, remember? Just like when we were little kids back in Illinois. You'll be back on your feet kicking some zombie ass in no time."_

_The slight humor in her sister's voice went a long ways towards relaxing her. Lauren always did have a way with people. For another few moments Skyler took deep breaths in and out, trying to collect herself, until she was fairly sure that she wasn't going to have a panic attack. It still hurt like hell, but it was tolerable. Lauren was right: She'd probably be up and on her feet again within a few days. She even managed to wearily return her sister's slight smile._

"_Thanks, Lauren."_

"_Any time, sis."_

-x-

Skyler woke up from what had been a rather fitful sleep to a few weak rays of sunlight over her left eye, almost surprised not to find herself in a safe room. She yawned and stretched as she sat up, rubbing the sleep away from her eye. Then her sight caught on the claw marks across the carpet and the memory of the previous night came back to her with more vivid clarity.

Oh. Right.

Well, despite the matter of her sanity being in question for sleeping out on the couch so that the same Hunter that had nearly shredded her could curl up in his damned blanket fort, she'd made it through the night. That was a good sign. With the luck she'd been having, she'd been expecting a Witch to come and tear down the door or something.

_What an optimist I am, right?_

She was distracted from that train of thought when her stomach growled uncomfortably. Now that she wasn't half in shock or throwing up from blood loss, she realized that she'd gotten quite hungry. Unfortunately she hadn't precisely been expecting to be stranded out in the city, so she hadn't been carrying any rations. With any luck, there might be a couple of cans in the kitchen cabinets; the infected that had taken up residence in the flat had probably been enough of a deterrent to anyone who would've raided them.

Fortune finally seemed to be on her side when, after a little bit of digging, she turned up some Vienna sausages, a can of fruit cocktail, and a couple boxes of cereal. It wasn't enough to last for more than about a day, but it wasn't as though she planned on sticking around for very long. Looks like she was getting breakfast.

Skyler smirked as she drew out her combat knife and cut off the top of the can of fruit; before the apocalypse she'd been going through a bit of a health food phase. She wouldn't have even considered making a meal out of the processed meat and what wasn't even 'real fruit', but she'd gotten over it after only a few days. Beggars couldn't be choosers now, and food was food. She was almost thankful to Ben for having guarded it, even if he hadn't been aware of it.

She paused in the process of looking for something to eat with at the thought of the leaper. Any noises from behind the bedroom door had gone silent. She wondered if he was still alive in there… Skyler scoffed. And what did _she _care? She'd let him live on the assumption that he was dying, anyways.

Rather suddenly, though, she wasn't nearly as hungry. She wound up stirring the chunks of fruit around with a fork for a few minutes while absently staring at nothing in particular, only actually taking a few bites of the syrupy crap before scowling and quite literally throwing the fork onto the counter.

Screw it. It wouldn't hurt just to check.

-x-

At the sound of light footsteps outside of his nestroom, the Hunter jerked back into alertness. He'd been drifting in and out of consciousness ever since he'd gotten back into his nest when it had been dark. He couldn't let that happen.

_Can'tsleep. Nonono. Womanpreyoutside. Womanpreywillkill._

The fear of the womanprey and her firestick had kept him from resting, but even that was beginning to fade with just about everything else. Did it really matter anymore? He was going to die anyways, whether it was at the end of her firestick or from his wound. It was frustrating, infuriating, but there was nothing that he could do. Everything in his nature screamed against being this helpless.

He was drifting again when he was startled by the entrance to his nestroom creaking open. The womanprey's scent washed in like a wave before she even came through.

On instinct he growled and made a failed attempt to get his feet under him in preparation to attack, hissing threateningly when he couldn't manage that. The womanprey hardly reacted and didn't seem to care. He couldn't even intimidate his prey now? The Hunter barely had a concept of shame, but that was stirring it.

She stood in the entrance with her arms folded over her chest for a little while, not moving. The stance was angry but not aggressive, so slowly he allowed himself to let down his guard a little. He would wait; wait until he was strong enough to pounce. He hoped he got his chance soon. By now, he was starving.

Strangely, the womanprey didn't seem to have her firestick with her this time. The Hunter snarled in confusion at the realization. What did that mean? Of course she was going to kill him; that was what the Clean Ones did when his brothers, the ones like him, were too weak to hunt them. So then why-

_Tooweak, tooweak. Slipping. No! Can'tsleepcan'tsleep. Nowomanpreykill._

He fought desperately against unconsciousness but remained in a haze.

When he pulled himself back enough to have his senses again, the womanprey was crouching and staring into his nest, her eye locked onto him. He hissed softly and shifted backwards; even in the state he was in and with the one taken out he still hated having that eye on him. Added to the muttering noises that she was occasionally making, the pressure in his head was building to a point that he couldn't take. His inability to understand the noises of the Clean Ones didn't usually bother him that much, but now he was surrounded by things that he had no understanding of, and that was frustrating to no end. He dug his claws into his palms hard enough to draw blood, trying to focus on that instead.

Hunger stabbed at his stomach when she leaned in closer, almost within reach of his claws.

_Womanpreynothavefirestick. Closeclosesoclose. Reachclawgrab- No. Notnow._

No? Why not? Because… she was stronger, no matter how wrong that was. Better to look submissive for now. Better to wait. That wasn't all it was, but it was the only explanation his destroyed mind could come up with. Still, he settled for grumbling low in his throat and glaring out at her from over the shelter of his soft things.

The Hunter was processing what he was seeing strangely through that fog that he couldn't seem to shake. There wasn't a trace of fear in the womanprey's face, and he couldn't smell any on her anymore either. She'd gotten brave when she'd seen that he was weak, probably; he hadn't gotten the chance to show this prey that he was dominant again. Even though she'd been hurt her eye was hard, he thought; that wasn't the look of weak prey.

He heard a faint jingling and noticed a pair of shiny things hanging around her neck, gleaming slightly in the dim light. The Hunter followed them back and forth with his eyes, whining quietly to himself; he always _was_ attracted to shiny things, and he liked the clinking noise they made when they hit into each other. He wanted them.

Before he realized that he'd moved, the womanprey was hitting his outstretched hand away with a loud, angry yell. He yelped in surprise and fear, sliding back as far as his weakness would let him. Unable to hold it back, he whimpered pathetically. She was glaring now, he'd angered her-

_Nonono, nokill, pleasepleaseplease…_

Then, suddenly, the anger faded off of her face. With one more irritated sound that was almost a growl the womanprey stood, snatched something up from near his nest, and then hurried away. He yelped and jumped when the entrance slammed shut with a bang that sounded almost as loud as a firestick's sting.

His instinctual fury that had been building started to cool with the womanprey gone. He sank back down into his nest, letting out an exhausted sigh and just quivering for a little while, trying to make some kind of sense of what had happened.

The womanprey hadn't killed him. Not yet, at least. Why was that?

_Nest. Womanprey… womanpreymovedtonest?_

That only made it worse with the things that it was trying to force into his head. The Hunter growled softly, but curled up more into his injured stomach and the soft things, slowly giving in and allowing himself to rest. There was only one thing that he knew:

Something about this prey was different.

-x-

This was not happening. This was not. Fucking. Happening.

Skyler stormed across the flat at a fast walk, anger driving her almost without her thinking though she was unsure exactly what it was directed at. She fastened her pack around her waist as she walked, slowing only to knock a couple of plates off a shelf with an irate scowl.

Ben was dying, that much had become clear. There was no way that he was making it without medical attention. But she was _not_ actually feeling bad that it was her bullet in his gut. He was a goddamned Hunter! A brain-fried infected who'd mauled her just the night before, and who would finish her off given a chance! It had been a necessity, self-defense. Why was it even bothering her? She thought she'd killed off the part of herself that would've cared when Lauren had died.

This wasn't good; she needed to stay hard if she was going to survive. She had to leave. Now.

Throwing the can of fruit to the floor and snatching up her assault rifle when she passed the kitchen counter, Skyler rushed for the door and managed to bodily shove the chair out of the way with little trouble. She threw the door open, now desperate to be outside.

A couple of screaming commons greeted her, the first of which she gunned down as it ran at her. The second got the butt of her gun across the back of its head hard enough to crack bone. Screw them for getting in her way; Skyler wanted distance, and fast.

That safe room couldn't be too far. Hell, it didn't even have to be a safe room; just somewhere she could stop and clear her head. She felt like she was going to go crazy if she didn't find somewhere where she could stop and think.

Luckily, she soon caught sight of another red arrow leading her farther still from the main road. A wind picked up and screamed through the narrow network of alleyways, but the layers of her uniform kept her fairly protected from the cold of the early morning. She was sweating a little from the steady jog that she had taken up, anyways.

Any infected between her and the safe room was fair game for her rifle. A few times they managed to sneak up uncomfortably close on her right side due to her missing eye, causing her to become more than a little paranoid, but at least there weren't as many milling around as there would be on the main road. She did have one unsettling incident, though, when she failed to notice a Boomer's telltale gurgles until she rounded a corner and it was right in front of her. She managed to shove the fat infected back as it was getting ready to vomit and back up far enough to safely shoot it in time, avoiding the horde it surely would've drawn.

After maybe fifteen minutes of running, the familiar red door came into view like a godsend up a short set of stairs and in the back of an abandoned building. Christ, that was as far as she would've had to go? If she'd just pushed herself a little farther, maybe she would've been able to get a good night's sleep without having to worry about stalker Hunters locked into the next room.

_A little too late to complain now,_ she reminded herself.

That might not have been entirely true, anyways; Hunters tended to be persistent, and she doubted Ben was any exception. She bit down on her lip uncomfortably at the thought of the suffering leaper she'd left curled up under the bed.

_Stop thinking about that, NOW._

Whatever. It didn't matter now, anyways. She'd found the safe room; she was home free. Skyler hauled ass to get in the door and then slammed it shut behind her. Immediately she sagged into it an allowed herself to sink to the floor, exhausted from running in her condition.

The safe room was fairly small, apparently converted from a storage room, but it was pretty well stocked. Two worn mattresses were shoved into a far corner and, to her immediate relief; a couple of tables were pushed together and were laden with ammo and medical supplies. This little corner of the city probably hadn't been well traveled once the infection had hit.

Knowing that she'd be able to restock herself, Skyler closed her eyes for a few moments and waited for her breathing and the pounding of her heart to slow. The stitches she'd put in her chest were tugging uncomfortably. God, all of that running around was going to kill her.

Finally she rose from the floor, intent on investigating further. There were indeed a few signs of survivors that had passed through before her; a few pieces of clothing strewn about at random, some food wrappers, and lines of graffiti scrawled onto the walls. She paused to read a few over the supply table when she went to refill her cache of ammo and get a new first aid kit.

"Thank god for the Army", the uppermost one read. It was followed by a few remarks such as, "Damn right", "Finally someone packing some heat", and the ever-popular "Hope they kill every son-of-a-bitch between here and Boston". Her lips twitched in a smile at that.

That smile dropped at the last penned line, the one closest to her relatively short eye level. It said simply,

"Leave no one behind."

Christ. Like her team had gotten killed and left her behind to fend for herself? Like…

_Like you left Ben behind bleeding to death?_

The thought came to her unbidden, catching her off guard. Skyler's face twisted into a grimace and she slammed her fists down on the table.

"God_damn it_!" she shouted aloud to herself, cursing the mystery graffiti writer for making her think like that- No; Cursing herself.

Was it really so wrong to feel bad for him? Ben may have been an infected but he was suffering, that much was obvious. She'd left the poor leaper frightened, dying, and in agony. In her old life she wouldn't have treated dogs that badly. She could've at least ended it with the 'lead gift' to the back of the head, so to speak.

Or…

For another few dragging minutes Skyler merely stood there staring at the supply table. At the abundance of medical supplies laid out there, plenty to change her bandages several times over, and then some.

Finally, questioning whether she was right in the head but doing it in spite of herself, she pulled her pack off of her back and began loading it full of extra medical supplies. Hell, everything had gone insane enough already. Couldn't hurt to add to the insanity of it all a little more, could it?

She hoped that Carlin wouldn't mind if she payed her one last visit. She was going to have to act fast.

-x-

The womanprey hadn't come back. That was good, right? At least he could die without an intruder in his nest, and without the rage threatening to take away what little remained of his mind.

The Hunter whimpered to himself. Not that thought, or even being in his nest, brought him much comfort.

When he'd been with his pack his brothers had watched over each other when they were wounded, had protected each other from the attacks of the weak ones, had at least made sure that they wouldn't die alone. Now that he was dying, he was desperately wishing that he had never left them.

Violent shudders began to wrack his body and a long, broken whine escaped him out of his control. Something hot and wet started to build in his eyes, clouding his vision.

_Notblood. Eyes, somethingwrongwitheyes? Bad, nonono._

Whatever was happening it terrified him, which only made the shaking worse. The whimpers caught in his throat and turned into a series of keening noises that were unfamiliar to him.

Even if it was safe in his nest, he didn't want to die all by himself.

The Hunter lay there shaking for a while, the eyewater streaming down his face, until he heard the creaking noise of an entrance being opened outside. His entire body tensed up. Was it a Clean One coming to kill him? The Clean Ones were the only ones he knew who opened entrances that way. Then the scent came to him: the womanprey.

To his surprise, some relief mixed with the familiar rage and hunger that was stirred in him; at least she hadn't hurt him more than she already had yet. Maybe she wasn't going to? It made no sense, but if she hadn't already…

The womanprey's light steps came partway towards his nestroom, but then paused outside. Before he could stop it he was letting out a yowl of misery, frantic for her to know that he was still alive in there.

This was all wrong. Was he really so desperate that he wanted his _prey_ there? He wanted _so much_ to kill her; but anything that would respond to his whimpers was better than that suffering at that point.

Whether it was good or bad, the womanprey came into his nestroom before he could cry out again. The whines changed into a low growl at the sight of her; he couldn't help that much. The drive to hunt was too strong. Again, though, she didn't seem to care, and the noise soon died away.

She crossed over to where his nest was and kneeled down to his level. This time, though, all of the aggression seemed to be gone out of her stance. The emotion showing on her face and in her eye wasn't something he could name, but he could tell that it wasn't angry.

He could feel his blood grow hot and his head practically felt like it was on fire with the conflicting messages being sent to it, but he refused to look away from the womanprey. Being driven into madness was better than the thought of dying alone, at least. He shrank into the soft things, letting a quiet whine leave him.

_Please_, he begged in his mind, though he didn't really know just what he was begging for, _Pleasepleaseplease…_

The womanprey just continued to sit there and stare at him.

-x-

All Skyler could really see of Ben was a pair of eerily reflective yellow eyes watching her from under the bed, he was hidden in the blankets so stubbornly.

Now the question was, how to get a frightened Hunter out from under the bed without getting herself mauled again? He hadn't budged even for the lure of her sitting right in front of him. Then again, she'd probably succeeded in scaring the crap out of him by then, considering that he apparently did have the brainpower to label her as a threat. He just continued to watch her with wide and wary eyes, quivering from head to toe with tension.

Skyler cautiously risked reaching into the makeshift nest in an attempt to simply grab the leaper by his hoodie and drag him out, but was immediately met by gnashing, dagger-sharp teeth less than an inch from sinking into her uninjured hand for her effort. She pulled back fast enough to give herself whiplash, ready to defend herself if necessary.

The defensiveness turned out to be unneeded; as soon as he seemed to realize that he'd dropped his guard to lash out, Ben panicked and recoiled as if struck, crouching lower than ever to conceal himself with a sharp whine. He looked the part of a beaten dog trying to submit to avoid further harm. Well, that wasn't helping.

"Goddamn it, Ben," she muttered with an irritable sigh. Why was she even bothering?

She doubted he got any more than her tone, if even that. Snatches of a hungry growl escaped him on and off, though he cut them off every time they started up. An idea popped into Skyler's mind.

"Well, Ben, if you want to play that way."

She gathered herself up from the floor and went back into the kitchen, ignoring the odd keening noise that followed her. She returned a moment later with the can of Vienna sausages that she hadn't sent flying during her miniature fit. Skyler casually sat down within sight of the Hunter and opened up the top of the can with her knife, keeping half an eye on him.

The reaction was instantaneous. Ben immediately froze up, raising his head just enough to curiously sniff at the air. From the looks of him, he hadn't had any kind of decent meal in days (Skyler shuddered to think exactly what that last meal had been). She smirked slightly and popped one of the tiny sausages on the end of the fork into her mouth, taking her sweet time just to show how much she was enjoying it. He whined softly in longing, his shaking growing worse by the second though he still refused to move.

Ben yelped in surprise and flinched away when she speared another sausage on the fork and thrust it unceremoniously under the bed. She wondered if he'd actually take it; she'd never seen an infected eating something that hadn't recently had a pulse. It was worth a shot, though.

"Come on, Ben. You want it or not?"

Skyler watched his luminescent gaze flicker from her to the processed meat for a minute, warily investigating. Finally he gave in and, with a soft growl, shifted forwards enough to scarf down the morsel.

"That's right. It's good, isn't it?"

The starving Hunter, obviously excited by the taste of food, sniffed at the carpet in search of more. Her smirk grew and she made an exaggerated show of setting the can down on the floor, backing away, and then turning her back on him.

It was another minute or so before Skyler heard the faint dragging and shuffling noises of Ben venturing out from his nest, punctuated with several soft hisses of pain. She waited for a little while, until he'd probably let his guard down a little to eat, discreetly coiling the emergency rope that she'd found in the safe room around her hands.

Then, when she was fairly sure that he was sufficiently distracted, she turned and threw herself at him.

"Got you!"

Ben yelped in shock, which escalated into a cacophony of shrieks and howls once she was on top of him. He scrabbled frantically to get away, his claws tearing the carpet to shreds, but she managed to get him pinned in a way that wasn't far removed from how he'd trapped her the day before.

"Hold fucking still, goddamn it!" Skyler yelled in frustration. Her shouting only served to agitate the terrified Hunter more.

He looked a complete and utter mess, and not just because of his disease or his wound. With her vantage point on him she could clearly see the wild, animalistic terror flaring in his eyes under the glaze of pain; eyes which were now noticeably rimmed in red in addition to having that bizarre yellow hue. His face was shining with something other than the bloodstains on it, she saw.

Skyler was taken aback. Christ, had she really just walked in on the leaper _crying_? She'd never seen any infected other than the Witches cry, and even then she'd always thought it to be some sort of trap. The realization was unnerving.

Even hardened, toughened Skyler couldn't help it; she frowned in pity for the poor infected writhing under her, his increasingly desperate yowls only making her feel worse. She sighed, and then her voice automatically came out in a softer, more reassuring tone than she could believe was coming out of her mouth.

"You'd better hold still and let me do this, Ben."

-x-

_Pinned? Nonono! Pinned! Trap!_

The Hunter tried to shriek in defiance, but it came out as a fear-scream. He was furious that he'd been overpowered, and almost as much so that he'd let himself relax even a little with the womanprey there. She was prey, not sister; she only wanted to hurt. His hate for her surged again with the awareness that he'd been deceived.

He had to get away. Even if she didn't have claws, pinning could only mean one thing. All of his thrashing couldn't free him in his weakness, though.

Why didn't she just kill him and end it already?

Then something rough wrapped around his arms, preventing movement, and everything else gave way to his instinctive need to _get away_. He wasn't really aware of the screeching, the writhing, or even the pain in his stomach.

_OffgetoffgetOFFRUNRUNRUN!_

He nearly bucked her off of him in his desperation, but her hold on him was too strong, and his strength was leaving him again. It was no good.

The pain he was expecting didn't come, though. He continued to wait for the death that he knew was coming, but it didn't happen. His breath came quick and panicked.

_Nowomanpreykill? Whywhywhy?_

He stared up at her looking for some kind of answer, but what he saw only confused him more. Even as she kept him pinned, her face lacked any real aggression. She looked a little angry, maybe, but absent of the rage that came before a kill. What was she doing? Only one thought came to his mind.

Was the womanprey trying to assert dominance? His former leader had pinned his pack-mates like that when they'd dared to challenge him.

He growled at that thought. No. He wasn't going to submit to his prey! He wouldn't-

The womanprey's noises came again. But it was different this time; the tone was different. Normally he hated prey's noises and the pain in his head they caused, but he- he liked these ones. He didn't come even close to actually understanding whatever she was trying to get across, but the background noise in his brain was pleasant. The sound was soft, low, almost hypnotic.

_Goodnoise_, he thought, almost surprised by how much the rage filling his mind cooled. He couldn't remember a time when he'd ever felt that calm. The relief of even a little of that pressure was as good as the food he'd managed to get before she'd pounced on him. He fell back against the floor-covering, the frenzied panic that had been driving him dulled.

All right. He would submit for now, if it meant she wouldn't kill him.

As soon as the womanprey was silent, though, the screaming in his head to rip something into pieces started building again in full force.

_Nonono! Good, thatwasgood. Moregoodnoise; likegoodnoise._

The Hunter twisted and whined, turning into a startled yelp when he realized that his arms were still bound. He couldn't help it; his instinct wouldn't let him do anything _but_ react violently. He squirmed and drew in breath for another shriek.

She hastily started making those sounds again and his shriek came out as little more than a soft trill, fading into a low rumble deep in his chest.

Without his will he swayed for a moment before collapsing back down, not bothering to fight. Exhaustion and the strange calm that listening to the womanprey's noises and the quiet clinking of the shiny things around her neck had brought him had him drifting into a sort of daze where he didn't really care if this was a trap, or about the rough thing around his arms, or if he was being dominated by the thing that he should've been hunting. His sense of danger had been nearly wiped out.

He did have enough of his senses left to him to tell when tension settled over her, though. What was that? It wasn't fear, because he wasn't smelling any of that on her. Whatever it was, the scent of it had his blood pounding through him almost as fast as it had when he'd pounced on her before, when he could still hunt. Whether it was good or bad he didn't know.

Confused, the Hunter stared up at the womanprey, looking for an answer on her face or in that infuriatingly frustrating eye. What was she doing to him? She gave away nothing that he could understand.

The tension dragged on, thick enough in the air that his muscles started to bunch up, too. It seemed like they were going to be locked that way forever; until the womanprey breathed out heavily down his neck, shifted back...

And came back up gripping a sharp-stabbing-thing in one hand.

-x-

All it took was for Skyler to pull out Carlin's surgical tool, and then she was once again trying to hold down a panicking Hunter with a major size advantage on her. If it weren't for the rope around his arms, he probably would've torn her to shreds. She supposed she couldn't exactly have expected him to grasp the importance of what she was trying to do, though. Well, that was going to be fun once she actually started working on the bullet in his stomach.

She'd been surprised if not amazed when she'd actually managed to get Ben settled into some kind of complacency, though she wasn't sure how to react; that implied that at least this infected had more brain cells left to him than she'd believed, and she still didn't know what to make of that. It was fairly obvious that his compliance ended there, though.

The terrified Hunter was putting up a noble struggle, but from what Skyler could tell he was dangerously close to passing out and wasn't likely to be freeing himself anytime soon. Still, she couldn't perform what was essentially impromptu surgery with him twisting around like the mad thing that he was.

"I'm trying to make this easy on you, Ben," she muttered, but ultimately had to just wait for him to tire himself out a little. Eventually he once again fell to the floor in a panting heap. "You done there?" Whines and a constant rumbling growl punctuated his ragged gasps, but at least he wasn't shrieking his lungs out anymore. "Good. Let's get started then."

The horrified yelp that he let out when she raised the implement again gave her pause, though. Maybe it was just her, but she could imagine him looking almost betrayed.

_Poor guy,_ the thought came to her unbidden. She supposed she couldn't really blame him for freaking out; he probably had no clue what was going on. That couldn't be easy on that messed-up head of his.

Skyler sighed aloud, then pulled the chain of her dog tags up over her head and thrust them forwards. Ben jerked back in surprise at the sudden motion but did, she noticed, watch the arc they were swinging over his face in a trance-like sort of fascination.

"Take them," she muttered, gesturing vaguely downwards with the chain in hand, knowing that he wouldn't understand the words but hoping that he got the idea of the gesture.

It took a moment, but finally he hesitantly brought his head up enough to take the dog tags between his teeth, his eyes wide with bewilderment. Skyler nodded in encouragement.

"That's right." She turned her attention back to his bloody, wounded stomach and the task at hand. "You're going to need them."

In one swift motion she unzipped his hoodie to the bottom, only to be faced with a sticky and blood-drenched black tee shirt underneath it. There was no removing the garments with his hands bound, so she opted instead for dumping the contents of the medical bag onto the floor and simply cutting through the shirt with a pair of scissors. He wasn't likely to miss the shirt, anyways; it was cold, but he was running the mother of all fevers. She peeled both layers of clothing away, leaving his abdomen bare. As expected, the muscles there were toned enough to make most professional athletes jealous, though the occasional sores scattered across his grayish skin marred the attractiveness that might have held a good deal. And there was the bullet wound, bruised, caked in blood, and agonizing looking. If he'd had a normal build it might have killed him outright.

Ben whined and squirmed uncomfortably at his exposure, but Skyler ignored him and focused instead on locating the bullet. Fortunately, it didn't take long to find. She nodded to herself and prepared to start in on the unlikely procedure.

_Don't worry, Ben. I'm not going to let you go out on me that easy._

-x-

Pain. All that was there was pain. Horrible, blinding, maddening pain that burned hotter than fire.

The Hunter's mind was drowned in it, his senses swallowed up by a red haze.

Thrash, screech, bite tear kill. Anything. Just make it STOP.

His only thought left was that this was going to last forever; this agony was never going to end.

And it only got worse as it went on. With every wave it grew more unbearable, until it reached a point where it couldn't possibly hurt any more and his vision went white with it.

It was more than his mind was capable of handling. He was sure that if that torture went on for any longer, he was going to lose himself. There was no way that he could hold on much longer with that screaming in his head.

Then suddenly, the pain began fading, first from his limbs, but then leaving his whole body sinking into a comfortable numbness.

What was this? Whatever it was, he wasn't going to resist; he simply didn't have it in him anymore. Besides, any relief from that pain couldn't be bad… right?

The last thing that the Hunter was aware of was the womanprey, leaning over him and shouting, but the noise was lost on him. And then it all faded away into nothing.

-x-

"Ben. Ben!"

The Hunter under her had ceased moving entirely. Shit. Shit. Oh shit. Was he even breathing? Skyler leaned in close over his face to listen and confirmed exactly what she had feared: No. He wasn't.

Damn it, not now! Not after all she'd gone through to come back and save him!

"Ben, come on! You've got to wake up!"

Even as she shouted it, though, her rational thought contradicted it. Why? Why was it so important that he should make it? There was no denying that Ben was an infected, just like all the hundreds of other infected that she'd killed. There was little more than some kind of rabid, homicidal animal left of whoever he'd been before. Hell… he'd probably be better off dead.

For the first time in a very long time, Skyler felt her hands and lips trembling.

No. She didn't believe that.

She fell upon the medical supplies she'd spilled onto the floor, searching for one thing in particular.

There was some difference; something small, but key. Maybe she was crazy, but she did believe that it was there.

Skyler just couldn't bring herself to believe that there wasn't something in Ben that was worth saving.

There! She snatched up the defibrillator that had been in the bag, calling on her limited knowledge of how to use the damned things, and scurried back over to attach the nodes to the appropriate locations on his suddenly cooler skin. Let it charge, she thought, and then deliver the shock. Somewhere in the back of her mind it occurred to her that she was likely to be the only one who had ever thought to revive a damned Hunter, but she didn't care.

She flipped on the unit's power and waited.

One second. Two seconds. Three. A small beep alerted her that the electrodes had finished charging.

For less than a moment she allowed herself one more glance at Ben where he lay. She couldn't see much of his face under his hood from that angle, but what she could was still taut from the pain he'd just been put through. Christ. He really _did_ look hardly old enough to qualify as a grown man.

"You'd better breathe, Ben," she almost whispered, "Because I'm sure as hell not giving you mouth-to-mouth."

Skyler delivered the shock.

* * *

><p>Author's Note<p>

Holy crap, long chapter! Sorry this one took so long, it's just a bit longer than I'm used to. Should I maybe split it into two chapters somewhere? It seems... off. But, oh well. I can always fix things later. To anyone reading, I'm still looking for songs that would make a good 'soundtrack' for this. Thanks for reading!

Left 4 Dead and all things associated belong to Valve. Skyler and Ben belong to me.


	5. This Calling

-x-

_Eyes. Womanprey's eyes? No. Close, but not hers. Same color. Whose?_

_ Voices, movement. What was going on? It was all fragmented, none of it made any sense._

_ Familiar; why did it feel so familiar?_

_ Eyes. Eyes, and then blood._

_-x-_

Pain; there was pain in his stomach. The Hunter quickly became aware of that pain as he stirred into wakefulness.

_Pain? Whypain? Was, was..._

He shrieked and scurried backwards as the memory of what had happened rushed back to him, instinctively lashing out at the threat he was sure was there.

_Deadkilledmedeadwasdead! Whathow?_

He yelped when his head hit something hard over him and crouched down to the floor to get away from it, his breath quick with the onset of panic.

This, this couldn't be happening! It made no sense! When something was dead it was gone, no more. Even he knew that. Then why-

A soft jingling noise drew him out of his blind panic enough for him to look around and realize that the thing he had hit his head on was the top of the crawlspace that held his nest.

He was in his nest, and the womanprey was no longer pinning him and attacking his wound with her sharp-stabbing-thing. Once he realized that he was in relative safety he let himself collapse into the soft things, still panting from the lingering shock and fear.

For a little while he buried his face in the soft things, wanting to shut everything out and just try to make some sense of what was going on. He was going to go mad if he didn't.

He was alive; he'd been dead, and now he wasn't. What had the womanprey done? She'd killed him, he thought. But she'd stopped her attack on him, and now he was awake.

_Notattack,_ something in the back of his head was telling him, _Womanprey, she- Womanpreydidwhat?_

And where was she? He'd heard the clinking of her shiny things, but nothing else after that. The Hunter raised his head and gave a kind of bark, trying to locate where she'd gone. There was no response, so he started sniffing for her. Her scent, though, was only there in lingering traces.

He did smell something else, though: the saltymeat that he'd been eating when she'd jumped him. Confused as he was, he was still distracted by the thought of food; starvation quickly won over fear and he crept forwards, wary in case it was part of a trap again.

As soon as he moved he noticed two things: something pulling at his wound, and the sound of the womanprey's shiny things again. He yipped at the strange feeling and sat up on his haunches to investigate it as soon as he was out of his nest, pulling up his upper covering enough to look at his stomach.

It was covered in wrappings like the ones on the womanprey's chest and eye. Underneath them he could feel something holding his wound together. It still burned, but nothing was twisting in it when he moved; the sting was gone.

When he bent down to lick at it, something hung down from around his neck. The Hunter quickly grabbed it, and then realized what it was: the womanprey's shiny things, dented where he'd clenched them in his teeth before. They were hung around his neck. He stared down at them like they could answer all of the questions suddenly spinning through his mind.

She'd given him a gift? But… she was a _Clean One_! Only pack was supposed to do that!

_Womanpreyfixedwound. Womanprey… womanpreyhelp._

The Hunter growled softly at the throbbing in his head, but shook his head to clear it and sat down to finish the food (noticing that there was now a round holding thing filled with some water, too). He was going to need to get some of his strength back.

_Findwomanprey. Havetofindwomanprey._

-x-

_Well, Skyler, are you happy yet? Ben's going to be all right, and you're well on your way to the next safe room. Nothing left to think about._

Skyler sighed heavily and shook her head, trying to divert her attention to keeping her remaining eye out for any specials hanging around the area. Right. She wished it were that easy.

She was a good hour or so out of the flat, having started out later than she'd intended after waking up from what had to have been a coma, and was making pretty good time considering her newly-discovered depth perception issues.

And she still couldn't get the leaper that she'd left behind out of her mind. Christ. She grimaced, putting her full effort into thinking about anything else. She never should have looked.

It had been a sort of morbid curiosity, really. She'd been bandaging Ben's wound after she'd finally managed to get him in what looked like a relatively stable condition, when it had occurred to her that she'd never actually seen a Hunter without a hood on and that was likely to be her only opportunity. She'd been a little embarrassed by her interest, but hell. When was she going to get another chance like that? Maybe she'd wind up with something interesting to tell the guys back at base, if she ever decided to open up about her little adventure and if she managed to be rescued in the first place. With that in mind, she'd lifted up his hood for what was probably the first time since he'd been infected.

She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. There had to have been plenty of infected that had been young men like Ben that she'd killed. There was something a bit depressing about seeing it so close, though.

He would've been handsome once, when he'd been human. His hood had been concealing somewhat curly black hair and a single silver stud in his right brow. Without the menace cast by the shadows over his face, she could see him actually looking nice, maybe even sweet, in his past life. Surely he'd had a life before with family, friends, probably even a girlfriend, or at least a story behind how he'd gotten that brow piercing. Now those dark curls were in matted knots, and his face was blanched in the unhealthy tone of disease; horribly bloodstained and crisscrossed with scratches besides. She wondered if on any level he was even dimly aware of what he'd lost.

Skyler mentally kicked herself at the turn her thoughts were taking. What the hell was wrong with her? It wasn't doing any good thinking that way. Her face contorted into a grimace as she swung her assault rifle to the side, gunning down a couple of commons leaned against a wall like some kind of mob execution.

She was losing it, she thought; some part of her was honestly _feeling bad_ for leaving. What the hell else was she supposed to do, though? She'd stuck around for long enough to make sure he had the best shot at making it that she could give him, and that was all she could do. After all… even if she'd saved him, there was no _saving _him. She knew damned well that there was no coming back from what the infection had done to him.

Enough. Skyler forced her attention back to the present, and the present involved either leaving the relative security of the back alleys or continuing along what looked like a dead end. Faced with her amazing variety of options, she reluctantly settled for venturing out into the street. She was surprised to find it mostly clear of commons, though, save for a few stragglers milling around up ahead. From what she'd seen, that wasn't likely to mean anything good.

Well, it wasn't as though she had much choice, unless she was thinking of turning back. And she most certainly wasn't doing that. Skyler grit her teeth, readied her assault rifle, and took up extra caution at a peculiar feeling on the back of her neck. God. She'd had enough of feeling watched for her entire lifetime.

She didn't like this. Not any of it at all.

-x-

The Hunter yelped and rolled to the ground, saving himself from a fall but in awful pain anyways. His wound burned when the muscles in his stomach flexed, and his blood leaked hot and wet into the wrappings as something tugged at the skin around it. He felt stronger than before, but he still couldn't jump. He hissed in frustration but continued on; it was all he could do.

The womanprey had gotten farther than he'd hoped. Now that she wasn't bleeding, her scent trail was faint, but not hard to distinguish since she was the only Clean One who had come in a long while. It stood out pure and inviting over the diseased smell of his brothers, drawing him to his prey.

He still didn't quite understand why following her seemed so important; it was different than what normally drove him to pursue the Clean Ones. She was still prey and the drive to kill was still there, but something... something wasn't the same. All he knew was that his instinct was telling him to seek her out, and he listened to his instinct.

_Findwomanprey,_ he repeated in his head, _havetofind._ That was what he had to focus on. It hurt his head to think about it more than that.

At least now he could walk without his limbs failing him, though he still felt faint. The Hunter stalked over the ground in the shadows between high places, down the narrow ways where the womanprey's scent led.

A couple of his weak brothers noticed his weakened state and chose to attack him, but it was their mistake; now that he had a little of his strength, he could fight back. He snarled fiercely and reared back, slamming into the first's legs and knocking him to the ground. The other merely screamed stupidly as he ripped out the first's throat in his teeth, slashing at any part of the weak brother's flesh he could reach. Excited by the scent and taste of blood, even if it was sick blood, he turned and shrieked at the remaining one. He seemed to realize that he was outmatched and franticly turned to run from his claws.

The Hunter gave a kind of scoff but didn't bother pursuing, choosing instead to enjoy his kill for a moment. He grumbled low in his throat and turned onto his side to roll his coverings in the growing pool of blood, his mind still racing with the excitement of a kill.

_Notnow,_ the thought interrupted him after a moment,_ womanprey._

He growled softly but got back onto all fours, continuing on and ducking his head slightly to avoid the light when the spaces became more open. He could come back later.

_Findthen… kill?_

The thought of hunting her didn't bring nearly as much of a thrill as it was supposed to. That was the frightening part; the only thing he'd ever really been sure of was what he wanted, and now he didn't even have that. Nothing made any sense without that. He stopped and grabbed onto the shiny things around his neck, squeezing them like they were the things that were going to keep his mind from snapping completely.

She was the one who had given them. She'd-

A sudden, startled yell reached his ears from somewhere ahead and he snapped back into alertness.

_There! Womanprey!_

Something had happened; something had gotten to her before him. The Hunter's blood started to boil with the familiar rage when he realized that until it escaped into a steady growl. No! He might not have known just what he wanted with her but the womanprey was _his_! He started to tremble with the fury of his prey being taken. Then he let out his kill-screech and called up every bit of his energy to run in bounds faster than he'd thought his body could manage then, nearly blind with the anger surging through him.

_Nobrotherstouchwomanprey. MINE. WOMANPREYMINE!_

-x-

No. NO.

Skyler felt the Smoker's tongue slip around her waist like some kind of grotesque snake and tried to free her arms to turn and shoot, but by then it had started constricting and it was too late. The slimy appendage effectively bound her arms to her sides. It would only be a matter of time before she couldn't so much as breathe.

A sharp scream ripped from her throat against her will. Panic held her in its grip. Oh god, no. This couldn't be happening.

It was just like when she'd been on her way to the evac center, only this time she wasn't going to be rescued. Lauren wasn't there to save her that time.

She was alone, and she was going to die.

"NO!" she shrieked, not even caring if her screaming drew a horde, "N-"

Then the Smoker pulled back, choking off her shout and landing her flat on her ass on the ground. Skyler gasped for air as it started to reel her in towards the unseen source of the excited coughs and wheezes, but all of her struggling was doing no good. Her already-sore ribs were protesting in agony. Somewhere along the way she lost her rifle, and soon she was breathing the infected's smoke cloud, which certainly didn't help with her breathing problem.

Christ, so this was how it was going to end? After all she'd lived through, she was going to be choked by a Smoker because she'd been too stupid and reckless to notice it. It might have been almost funny, if it didn't hurt so damned bad.

Just when she thought that her luck couldn't get any shittier, the telltale shriek of a Hunter sounded from in front of her. Great, she thought dizzily, one of the Smoker's buddies had decided to take advantage of the fact that she was defenseless.

Skyler managed to get her head up enough to scan for the new threat, but had to blink when she actually saw the hunched, grey-hooded figure in front of her. There was no way.

_Ben?_

The Hunter was crouched for the pounce, every inch of him quivering with tension. And he looked _pissed_. Every one of his bloodied teeth was bared in a snarl, and he looked every bit as fierce as he had before she'd shot him. Well. So much for gratitude then.

Maybe it was the lack of oxygen getting to her head, but… Skyler was almost glad that it was going to be Ben to kill her instead of the Smoker. Rationally she knew that it should make no difference, but hell. If she was going to have any infected tearing out her guts, it might as well be him.

_Guess this is it, then,_ she thought, dangerously close to passing out from the pressure on her lungs. She tensed every muscle in her body in anticipation of the inevitable impact that was to come.

Before she squeezed her eye shut, she saw Ben rear back farther onto his haunches and let loose another shrill, primal screech.

-x-

_LongTonguetrapwomanprey! Easykilleasyfood, now, pouncenow!_

Every one of the Hunter's instincts was shrieking in his head for him to make the kill, to take the prey that he knew was his. His muscles strained until they ached with the tension, longing to send him flying through the air. Through the excited haze of hunting he saw the womanprey fighting to breathe against the Long Tongue's hold, still struggling weakly, and the sight made his blood race. Still though, he didn't pounce.

_Now, _his instinct demanded,_ KillNOW! BiteripeatnownowNOW!_

_ Wait. Waitwaitwait._

The Hunter screeched in pain, the conflicting messages in his brain making him want to claw the pain away. Why wait? She was _right there_, and she was _helpless_! Whatever was holding him back, it only made him more furious.

_Killwomanpreynow! Waitwaitwait. Pounceripeat- No; notnow. LongTounge. Nobrotherstouchwomanprey. Mine? Mine, womanpreyminemineMINE! WOMANPREYMINE, WOMANPREY-_

_ Womanpreynotprey._

What? What did that even mean?

Didn't matter. The anger was building up in him to a point that he couldn't physically do anything _but_ attack. The Hunter shrieked his kill-screech, the rage behind it making his throat raw from the force.

_WOMANPREYMINE. KILL._

Without any more of his thought the muscles in his legs released, and he sprang forwards with an enraged snarl.

-x-

Skyler was all but prepared to die when she heard Ben's enraged shriek, when she was just about surprised shitless by an audible _whoosh_ of air flying over her.

_What the hell?_

She honestly had no idea what the hell had just happened. Until, that was, the Smoker's hacks cut off into a strangled wheeze of shock and Ben's yowls turned into a fair impression of a pissed-off cat getting into a scrap. Something hit the ground with a dull thud, and then came the sound like knives ripping through wet rags. Abruptly, the tongue's death grip around her ribs loosened.

Gasping for air, she frantically tried to brush the disgusting appendage off of her and push herself away, her vision slowly clearing of the swimming black spots that had popped up there. She blinked rapidly to get a better look at just what had happened to free her.

Now that she was seeing it, she was even less inclined to believe it as when it happened.

The Hunter had the Smoker pinned down the same way that he had her and was setting himself in, screaming his bloodlust as the other terrified infected choked its dying breaths. Arcs of strangely tinted blood and god only knew what else were sailing into the air, splattering anything close by. The Smoker was dead within seconds, but he just kept going, like he was taking out every bit of his aggression on the now-unmoving body.

It was all Skyler could do to sit there shaking, coughing violently from nearly having her ribs crushed and damn near in shock besides. God, she'd almost forgotten just how violent Ben really was; the other infected practically looked like it had been attacked with a lawnmower.

Was he defending his kill or something? It had to be a matter of time before he turned on her, and then she was going to have to-

Her assault rifle. She'd dropped her assault rifle when she was being reeled in. Well. That wasn't good.

Once he'd apparently shredded the Smoker's body to his liking, Ben grumbled deep in his throat and slowly crawled off of it, now thoroughly drenched in its blood. Skyler couldn't help flinching a little when he started coming towards her, ready to defend herself. Hell, he couldn't have that much strength to him after she'd had to revive him the day before.

And then he merely sat back on his haunches, staring at her intently with hidden eyes and growling but doing little of anything else. What?

Still gasping for breath, she stared up disbelievingly at the leaper who'd saved her from certain death. The question written all over her face might have been obvious even to his infection-addled brain.

_Why?_

"Well?" she half-gasped harshly, mostly for the benefit of her own confidence, "Are you going to kill me or what?"

Ben just gave another rumbling noise, but now was rocking slightly back and forward on his heels, as if his body itself couldn't decide if it was going to pounce. Despite herself she inhaled sharply when he warily crept closer, until he finally stopped directly in front of her, close enough that she could smell the sweat and blood on him.

Slowly he reached around his neck and held something up with a softer growl, almost like he was asking her something; he was showing her the chain with her dog tags on it.

Skyler blinked a couple times in surprise, and then let out a single, almost hysterical laugh that sounded more like a cough from her aching lungs, traces of a relieved smile breaking out across her face. Damn, maybe her little adventure the day before had been a good idea after all.

"Y-yeah," she got out, "Those are yours now. You, umm. You can keep those."

Before she could really react to the strange situation farther, an all-too-familiar noise stopped her cold: the wails and shrieks of an approaching horde.

"Shit!" she cried as Ben started up snarling, both her and the Hunter scrambling to make it to their feet. Ben made it first, but the action was immediately followed by him swooning and making a visible pitch towards the ground with a startled yelp. Well, looked like the stress was finally getting to his weakened state.

Christ. She wasn't exactly ready to trust him not to turn on her, but she'd seen commons attack other injured infected on more than one occasion. After all the trouble she'd been through, she wasn't about to just leave him.

-x-

Bad. This was bad. The mob of weak brothers was coming fast, and his body was refusing to obey him again. If he couldn't get up, both him and the womanprey were going to die. His womanprey. _His_. The thought of his brothers killing her boiled into more rage, but it turned into distress when he still couldn't get his limbs to support him. The Hunter yelped again, starting to panic.

_Nonono, getup! Pleasepleaseplease, havetogetup!_

She made a muttering noise and crouched in front of him. A growl rumbled through him, but he really couldn't control that; his body was begging less fiercely to pounce after he'd torn the Long Tongue, but his instinct to kill was as strong as ever.

_Womanpreynotprey,_ he told himself again, the strange thought the only thing keeping him from attacking, _notpreynotpreynotprey. Nokill. Notnow._ Thinking it hurt his head less this time; it had a kind of clarity it hadn't before.

All of those thoughts were cut off when the womanprey made a muttering noise and grabbed him, trying to pull him up. For a second it was all overwhelmed by his primal need to either fight or get away. Screech, twist, claw, make her stop touching, _kill_-

Somehow he managed to get a hold of the urge before he got his teeth into her, panting raggedly with the effort. He hissed in warning and struggled the best he could, desperate to get away, but he could barely hold himself up. The womanprey wouldn't let go, only started making awfully loud noises that panicked him more and grated at his mind. He keened in pain and fought to cover his ears.

_Pleasepleasepleasestop,_ he begged in his head, _letgoletgo!_

He was going to bite if she didn't release him; he didn't think he could do anything else.

She must have seen his distress then. The grip on his arm didn't relax, but the yelling noises that she made did stop. When the sounds started again, they were different: soft and low, like before. It had the same effect on him as then, too. The pressure in his brain dulled, and the desperation faded from his thrashing.

She… she wasn't hurting. Okay, he told himself even though his breath was still coming quick and it went against every one of his instincts to relax even a little; it was okay.

He didn't have much choice, anyways. The weak brothers were almost close enough to attack, and the only thing keeping him from falling was her hold on him. The Hunter started to growl a warning at the ones closest, but cut it off in surprise as the womanprey put the arm she had around her small shoulders and struggled up, taking him with her. He yelped at the sudden movement and the discomfort of being up on two legs, but was still calm enough to resist snapping at her and did vaguely recognize that he was being helped.

_Gowithwomanprey. Womanpreyhelp._

He wished he knew what it was that was making him actually want to trust the thing that he should've been hunting, but he could try to figure that out when he was safe. For now, he just had to hold on. Holding on was his only choice.

_Womanpreynotprey. Gowith. Womanprey… different._

-x-

_Prey. Preysmell! CleanOneclose!_

High above the ground, the Alpha growled his excitement, his pack mates quickly smelling it too and doing the same. It had been too long since food had come, and all five of them were hungry. The scent was distant, but it was already making his mouth water.

Without so much as a sound from him, his pack knew to follow him as he sailed across one rooftop and onto the next.

His mate, the little red-haired female, kept stride with him and yipped in enthusiasm, to which he rumbled in assurance. He was glad that his mate would be able to eat; she'd always been small, and he worried about her not being strong enough to fend off a Clean One with a beatingstick or a sharp-stabbing-thing. He would have to keep the rest of his pack back while she ate her fill. Little-Red-Hair ate first.

Closer now. The Clean One's scent was growing heavier in the air from below. They'd been there not very long before. As he drew nearer to the source, though, the Alpha started to pick up on another, familiar scent mingled with the smell of the prey.

_Grey-Hood?_

He growled at the thought. Grey-Hood had left the pack, and the thought of a pack-deserter taking the prey before them angered him. If he saw him and he'd killed the Clean One first, he would fight him for it, and kill him if he needed to.

Eager to claim the prey before his former pack mate could, the Alpha quickened his pace and growled softly for the others to be silent. He ran and leapt between high places, quickly closing the distance with his pack behind him.

_CleanOneclosenow. Eatsoon. Yesyesyes. Good._

Hearing the quiet sounds of the Clean One below, he stopped and crouched low, crawling to look over the edge and see the best way to make the jump.

What he saw instead made no sense.

The Clean One was there, standing by an entrance, and so was Grey-Hood. But it was wrong, all wrong. He was right next to them, the womanprey; leaning into her, _touching_ her. And he- he wasn't attacking? The Alpha snarled in confusion.

Grey-Hood's head jerked up at the noise, and the womanprey turned around and raised her firestick. He hissed under his breath at the threat, sliding backwards to avoid being seen. Little-Red-Hair gave a soft, questioning noise, but he grabbed her by her covering and pulled her back with him. From below he heard the prey get into the shelter and shut the entrance behind her.

His pack grumbled, obviously wanting to pursue the food, but the Alpha snarled at them to make them stop.

_Notnow. Womanpreywillsee. NotletGrey-Hoodtakeprey. Watch. Later. Wait._

With one more growl in the direction of Grey-Hood and the Clean One, the Alpha signaled his pack and leaped away.

* * *

><p>-Author's Note-<p>

Well, sorry this took so long. I had to get it out through a bit of a block, and I'm not overly happy with the result. As always, any feedback is loved so that I can clean up and improve. I will edit this later with the first edition of the 'soundtrack', so if you have any songs that you think fit this well, let me know! And once again, thanks for reading!

Left 4 Dead and all things associated belong to Valve. This story and all of my OCs belong to me.


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